Mt. Borrokoxko EA2/NV-025 by EA2IF/P on Sep. 7th, 2014

Dear all,
As I announced in the thread of my first failed attemp to this Summit, I was clearly determined and well documented on how to get to the summit without errors today.
I woke up at 6 AM local (4 AM utc) and drove to the Little village Ayechu/Aietxu. Then I took the mountain dirt road in my AWD car. See on the left a view of the mountains at sunrise from the road I took.

The drive on this road provided great views to me and let my Pyreenean shepherd dog “Lucho” meet some friends :wink:

At this point where Lucho met this horse friend, I had a good view of Ezpondarri mount, the one I wrongly believed Borrokoxko in my first visit here and finally got Borrokoxko at sight for the first time:

I kept driving the mountain dirt road about 2 or 3 Km further:

and finally parked the car to start the hike at this point seen in the right picture above.
After a short walk between trees, I got into a prairie and I soon found the clear path to the summit that I had previously seen in a satelite view of the area:

After hiking this path for some short time, I entered into this final prairie which took me to the Summit through the way on the left of the image.

After reaching the Summit, which is only marked by a pile of rocks, I prepared the set-up to start the activation.

The Summit was inside the forest, so I had no views from the operating point. This is what I could see from the trig point (not bad at all though):

The activation went very well. Started on 20m CW with my old friend Jorge (EA2LU) who kindly spotted me on Sotawatch and many stations showed up immediately. The best DX was VK2DAG. I want to mention the special QSO with Tonnie - PA9CW/P, who was running QRPP with 100mW, while I was running QRP 2.5 watts. Also the good number of S2S QSOs with Alberto, Antonio, Iratxe, Javier, Juan Carlos and Marcial, some of the most active SOTA friends in our area.
I worked several stations on QRP 2.5 watts and some others with 5 watts. Also for some QSOs on 2m FM, I transmitted with 500mW only in order to keep battery life longer…
At the end of the activation, I completed 68 QSOs, 9 of which were S2S.
I had a great time again and I want to thank everyone for calling me this morning.
On my way down I found the path fully blocked, but my dear SOTA colleague, Lucho, worked fine, as he well knows, to clear the jam up :wink:

Before descending completely, a final look and picture to Borrokoxko, where Mount Baigura (EA2/NV-016) can be seen behind at the left hand side of this picture:
Bye for now.

I hope to copy you son again from some other Summit.
Thanks again and best 73 de Guru - EA2IF

3 Likes

Well done Guru!!
Thanks for sharing and your pictures.

Hope to agree on a joint activation soon. VY 73
Ignacio.

Guru,

I think the distance beween Texel island and this summit is about 1100 km. So with my 100 mW we achieved abt 11000 km/W. That’s a nice record. Maybe next time 50 mW ?

The QTH locator here is JO23JB. Do you know the locator of this summit. So that way we calculate the exact distance.

Good luck es 73. PA9CW. Tonnie

Hi Tonnie,
Nice record indeed.
I missed you today during my activation, but it was my fault. I had a couple of unexpected problems which delayed my activation start by about 2,5 hours.
I’ll write a complete report of today’s activation. Hope you’ll enjoy it although you couldn’t work me.
The QTH Locator of Mt. Borrokoxko summit is IN92JU.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2If

Guru,

We went out at about 14:00 local time. So that way I couldn’t work you. The exact distance was 1218 km. So it’s 12180 km/W.

Thanks and hope to work you in the future.

Tonnie, PA9CW.